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Welcome to PER

Welcome to physics education research group at University of Minnesota. PER combines the application of fundamental knowledge about learning and the discipline specific knowledge of physics to investigate ways of making the teaching and learning of physics more effective and efficient, primarily at the university level. It is an interdisciplinary area with strong roots in the two core disciplines of Physics and Education. It's a research based group which provides teaching/learning support to the department and ph.D program to graduate students.

Life is a continuous exercise in creative problem solving.

About Us

The focus of the Minnesota physics education group has been the investigation of student difficulties with problem solving in the context of physics. It applies its results to develop practical curricular materials and techniques that can be used by physics faculty members in typical physics departments. This research has led to the development of problems that facilitate the learning of problem solving skills (Context-rich problems), a peer coaching pedagogy using a cooperative group framework (Cooperative problem solving), a problem solving framework for the use of students, a laboratory style that emphasizes problem solving, a program of educating and supporting teaching assistants, and a set of computer problem solving coaches. The group also develops research methodology such as techniques to effectively determine the goals of non-physics faculty for physics courses, the interactions of individuals solving problems in groups, and techniques to determine the beliefs and values of physics faculty teaching introductory physics. The group also develops assessment tools to evaluate student progress in problem solving, technical writing, and the correlation between algorithmic mathematical skills and problem solving.

2015 Summer workshop

2014 AAPT/PERC Summer Meeting materials

The following items are the presentations and posters from the 2014 AAPT and 2014 PERC meetings held at the University of Minnesota on July 26-30, 2014.
Powerpoint presentations will be posted in Links directory when finalized.

Assessing Online Computer Coaches for Problem Solving: Measures of Utility
This presentation is one of two presentations on the measures for the online coaches used at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Here, the coaches were a part of
homework in two separate semsters. This particular talk focuses on usage patterns and survey data to analyze the utility of the coaches.

Assessing Online Computer Coaches for Problem Solving: Educational Impact
This presentation is the second of two presentations on the measures for the online coaches used at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Here, the coaches were a part of
homework in two separate semsters. This particular talk focuses on educational impact of the problem-solving coaches. It is assumed that the presentation about the utility of the coaches
was attended and seen first.

Intelligent coaches for problem-solving in physics
This presentation is the first of two presentations on the technical aspects of the online coaches used at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. This presentation focuses on the
version 1 interface as well as how our internet coaches fit in the online homework/intelligent tutor landscape.